True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
46 illustrations found
A 2,000-Year-Old Seed Sprouted
In the 1960s, archaeologists digging at Masada, Herod's fortress by the Dead Sea, found ancient date seeds buried under rubble. Radiocarbon dating put them at about 2,000 years old.
A Church Body That Chose to Die
On June 28, 1804, at Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky, Barton W. Stone and five other Presbyterian ministers signed one of the strangest documents in church history.
Augustine Heard Take Up and Read
Augustine was a gifted teacher who had spent years chasing pleasure and wrestling with his sin. He later wrote about stealing pears as a youth just for the thrill of doing what was forbidden.
Bunyan Would Not Promise to Stop Preaching
When Charles II took the throne, the freedom to worship outside the Church of England ended. By January 1661, preacher John Bunyan was in the county jail.
DART Hit Its Target Hard
In 2022 NASA did something no one had done before. It crashed a spacecraft called DART into a small asteroid named Dimorphos on purpose, to see if people could change an asteroid's path if one ever threatened Earth.
Desmond Doss: One More Man
Desmond Doss joined the Army in World War II as a combat medic, but as a Seventh-day Adventist he had vowed he would never kill, so he refused to carry a gun.
Eighty-Six Years I Have Served Him
Polycarp was an old man, the bishop of Smyrna, and tradition says he had been taught by the apostle John. Sometime in the second century, Roman authorities came to arrest him.
Eric Liddell Wouldn’t Run on Sunday
When Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell learned that the 100 meter heats at the 1924 Paris Olympics would be run on a Sunday, he refused to take part, even though the 100 was his strongest distance, and news of his decision travelled around the world.
Expect Great Things, Attempt Great Things
William Carey was an English shoemaker's apprentice who became convinced that the church should be taking the gospel to the whole world. In 1792 he helped organize a missionary society and preached a sermon with the call, "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!"
Fanny Crosby’s First Face
When Fanny Crosby was only six weeks old, a man posing as a doctor treated an illness by putting hot mustard poultices on her eyes, and the treatment left her blind for life.
Gail Devers Nearly Lost Her Feet
Around the 1988 Olympics, sprinter Gail Devers was running slowly and getting sicker. She lost weight, lost hair, had headaches and skin sores, and at one point weighed just 79 pounds.
George Müller’s Ten Thousand Orphans
George Müller lived a wicked life as a young man in Germany before he was converted at about age 20. Later, as a preacher in England, he made a decision: he would never take a salary or ask anyone directly for money.
George Washington Carver Pressed On
George Washington Carver was born into slavery near the end of the Civil War. As a baby he was stolen along with his mother, and only he was brought back, sick with whooping cough.
Gladys Aylward and the Hundred Orphans
Gladys Aylward had worked as a London housemaid since she was 14. The China Inland Mission turned her down after she failed their exams.
Great Is Thy Faithfulness from an Insurance Man
Thomas Chisholm was born in a log cabin in Kentucky and never had much formal education. He was ordained a Methodist minister in 1903, but ill health cut his ministry short after one brief appointment.
Horatio Spafford: It Is Well
In November 1873, Anna Spafford and the couple's four daughters sailed for Europe on the S.S. Ville du Havre while her husband Horatio stayed behind in Chicago on business.
Hudson Taylor on Brighton Beach
Hudson Taylor carried a burden for the millions in China's interior who had never heard the gospel. But he was terrified of sending men and women unprotected into the unknown.
In the Beginning, from the Moon
On Christmas Eve 1968, at the end of one of the most painful years in American history, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders became the first humans to orbit another world.
Ingenuity Was Built for Five Flights
When NASA sent the little Ingenuity helicopter to Mars, the plan was modest. It was a test, designed to make up to five experimental flights over 30 days.
Jim Abbott’s No-Hitter
Jim Abbott grew up in Flint, Michigan, born without a right hand. He became a left-handed pitcher anyway.